Oh, look, a Malory novel. Do you know what the Malory brothers like to do? Rape women. Oh, I’m sorry, I meant ‘forcibly seduce’ women. For a book that’s bound to have a bunch of ‘forced seduction’ scenes, this cover is really quite pleasant. There’s a girl wearing a pink and white gown with laces and shit implying that she’s some kind of virgin and her arm is flung away just like so to show that she’s vivacious and carefree. What’s with her hair, though? It looks kind of ratty and clumpy, like um… a clump of hair in a bathtub drain. Look at it! Damn, this cover is so pretty, yet boring. I miss the Malory covers of yore… you know, the ones with Fabio on them wearing a white shirt unbuttoned to his waist flashing moobies. With a cover like this, I wouldn’t believe that this nice young lady will soon be laying beneath some long-haired bum with his hand over her mouth as he tickles her ivories with his free hand, while whispering to her, “Your body was made for this. It betrays you. It says ‘yes, yes, yes’ even as your mouth says no.” Unless Johanna Lindsey heroes don’t do forced seductions anymore. I don’t know. I haven’t read any of more books since I was in the 8th grade. Can anyone verify if the heroine in this novel gets raped forcibly seduced?
Thanks for this lovely cover, Christine!
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July 1, 2006 at 1:50 pm
I generally enjoy Johanna Lindsey books. This one, I’ve noticed, has several people commenting on the cover. Something about a disembodied arm…
At any rate: rape is not sex.
In my first novel, “Love’s Second Sight” the heroine is being attacked (forcibly seduced) and bites down when forcibly seduced into oral copulating with the bad guy. Yeah…,bites down.
I feel very passionate about forcible seductions. That’s why I wrote this scene in LSS:
“I did. He nearly beat me to death for it, too. But, as I was lying in the sand, dazed, my eyes swollen shut, I still had the presence of mind to defend myself. I wear a knife on my key ring. I use it to cut thread, gut fish. Slice the throat of a rapist. As Ketil came upon me, ready to take me, I loosed the blade and plunged it into his heart. A small blade, it was buried to its bone hilt in that black-hearted bastard’s chest. My blade—this very blade—tasted the blood of a dying man.”
Thorgunna held aloft her key ring bearing the knife, waving it about like a victory banner. “I felt a surge of power and success I have never felt again. It was exhilarating.”
“Here is a woman who could have been raped and killed and made a part of Tiree’s history rather than its future. The Lady should have been a mercenary,” Leif laughed.
“Aye! Had I been born a man I may have been a Byzantine mercenary, indeed. A Berserker! My father named his daughter well, did he not?” Thorgunna said, her black eyes dancing.
“Thunder Warrior,” Leif translated. I must have her! She is marvelous.
July 1, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Wow, were “heroes” still doing the forced seduction thing into the 90′s? I’m a geezer so I remember those Sweet Savage type books and the “heroes” took it whether the heroine wanted to give it up or not. I didn’t think that nonsense went on for that long, though. In a way to me some current romances are almost as bad. Some writers take that alpha male shit too far. I really don’t get it. The alpha man hero is very popular; are there really so many submissive, dominance craving women out there? It’s hard out here for a femdom romance loving woman like me.
July 1, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Is it just me, or is the beam off the prow (note my tall ships tech words savvy) totally going in the wrong direction? I bet once he has her on his ship they just go round in circles until she surrenders to his manly embrace!
July 2, 2006 at 6:10 pm
I don’t know about the forced seduction, but in the last Mallory novel I read the heroine was so innocent the hero had to explain to her that the big ol’ stabbing crotch pain he had just delt her meant she was no longer a virgin. That may not fall under the category of forced seduction, but it is not much better. However I really do like the cover on this one.
July 3, 2006 at 8:53 am
I just didn’t care for this cover…I too miss the Fabio smutted covers of old. Perhaps I’m showing my age. Who knows.
I answered your question in my book review Bam…about the forcible seduction…I’m was very disapointed by this book.
Just not the JL of old.
Sandie
July 3, 2006 at 6:37 pm
Everyone says that JL is not as good as she used to be. Does that mean the rape books were good?
July 3, 2006 at 6:55 pm
Honestly, web, some of them were not so bad. It was only when she started sequel-baiting that they all became too painful to read.
Sandie, the book sounds boring. Pass.
July 5, 2006 at 7:29 am
Yes Bam, I would agree.
Pass on it.
There are too many books out there to waste your time.
Sandie